Sunday Selections #585

 Long ago, Kim of Frog ponds Rock, (who no longer blogs), dreamed up a meme called Sunday Selections. 

A place where those who were willing could put up photos they wanted to share, new, old, good, bad or indifferent, any photos you please. 

Nothing rude or vulgar though.

And we don't mind at all if overseas bloggers care to join us.

The meme is now continued by Elephant's Child and I occasionally join in as do a few others. Andrew is one.  Messymimi is another. Drop in to them and have a look.

my second attempt at baking bread. Looks good doesn't it? Well, looks can be deceiving, this was a no-knead recipe where you leave the dough to rise slowly overnight. I worried that my yeast would die in the cold and it did. The bread inside that lovely golden crust was greyish, doughy and sour tasting, also very salty. Into the bin with it.

the bulbs I first planted are making slow progress

while the ones I planted weeks later have made speedier progress with the leaves now being long enough to be strappy, easily eight inches long.

here is Lola doing what Lola does best

and turning her back to the camera

seen through my window, the tree across the road has been lit by the setting sun.

With winter coming on, it is time to stock up the freezer:

rinse the fresh green beans (store bought), this is the last few of the 2kg I bought

top and tail, then slice them, I like diagonal slices

into the boiling water for blanching

time it for exactly one minute from the time the water gets back to the rolling boil

drain them off

spread them on a tray as thinly as possible for faster freezing

put the tray in the freezer and go off to do something else for about three hours

use a plastic spatula to loosen them from the tray, bag up the beans

and put them  back into the freezer, ready for winter dinners

The next day, I did the same with 2kg of carrots.

My freezer also holds  a box of 40 fish fingers; 12 home made garlic burgers, sausage hotpot, but only one serve is left, six serves of beef casserole and a couple of store bought microwave dinners, plus bags of green peas and sweetcorn and cooked sausages.

There's half a loaf of bread in there, a tub of icecream that I've been working on since December, (it's almost all gone now), frozen mozzarella cheese and some garlic bread slices. And an old ice cream tub that I use for things that would go stinky in the wheelie bin, like fat I trim off my meat, uneaten 'wet' cat food and so on. I empty it into the wheelie bin on collection day.



Comments

  1. What are those bulbs again? Hyacinths, or bluebells?

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    Replies
    1. Steve Reed; Caribbean Lily, they come in various shades of blue/purple and there's a white variety too. These ones are a dark blue/purple.

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  2. "a tub of ice cream that I've been working on since December"
    Since WHEN?! Ice cream doesn't last longer than a couple of days at my house.

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    Replies
    1. Mike; I did the same with ice cream a few years ago, but with ballooning weight, skyrocketing cholesterol and blood sugar, I was ordered to cut down. so I spent the next two and a half years with none at all, but last summer I bought one tub to have over Christmas. I finished it off three days ago.

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    2. Your self control has been operating in super power mode.

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    3. Mike; I was in danger of becoming diabetic and I didn't want that.

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  3. That bread looks delicious. Think I would have scooped out the inside and just eaten the crust. A cat can make a snooze look just wonderful. They make me jealous.

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    Replies
    1. Arkansas Patti; I hadn't thought of just eating the crust, I was too disappointed to think at all. I do a lot of snoozing myself these days (I'm supposed to be out walking off some of this fat).

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  4. You're very industrious, and tom be commended. I can't say the same about myself! :)

    Lola and my Shama could be twins! Give the lovely Lady Lola a cuddle for me, and I hope the coming week brings with it all you desire, River....take good care. :)

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    Replies
    1. Lee; how did I skip over your comment? Shame on me. Lola is getting lots of cuddles.

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  5. You have been very busy and productive.
    I am sorry about your bread, but love seeing your bulbs, and a blissed out Lola.

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    Replies
    1. Elephant's Child; I'll give the bread making another try, but not until the bought bread u=in the freezer is used up. Lola is very blissed now that her allergy season is over.

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  6. Pity about the bread. It looks so good. Keeping food waste in the freezer until collection day is a good idea. Most places here have now have moved to fortnightly general rubbish collection and bins could get very smelly in a fortnight.

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    Replies
    1. Andrew; I know I typed a reply here, perhaps I forgot to click on publish. anyway, I agree about the smelly bins, especially in summer.

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  7. I second Patti; I would have tried to salvage the crust. I can't believe your tub of ice cream is hanging on.

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  8. Too bad about the bread. Oh well, you can always try a different recipe. I make no knead bread from the Healthy Bread book, and it comes out well.

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    Replies
    1. Boud; welcome to drifting. This one was a no-knead recipe too, but nights here are cold now and the yeast died. It would do better in the summer.

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  9. Look like Lola is enjoying the sun.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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  10. Nice selection of photos, you've been busy freezing. Shame about that bread, I made some the other day and it was very nice, will make more at some stage.

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    Replies
    1. Margaret D; my daughters can both make bread, but I never had that knack. I'll keep trying though.

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  11. Sorry about your bread - it looks so good!
    I´ll try to plant some seeds today, wish me luck (and I got something for you, yayyyy)!
    Oh, Lola, sooooo cute. That smile...
    Eeek. You´re really into autumn.
    Hmmm, love green beans! Interesting method to freeze them!
    40 fish fingers?! May I cone over??? I can help you reduce that number! Hmmmm... We have 15, I think! Yes. I think we have ice-cream, too.

    See, since I learned to cook and bake I love to do that and the freezer is full to the brim, yet... I have too much in there and want to make fresh things!
    Who ever knew...

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    Replies
    1. Iris Flavia; bread making isn't easy for me, my daughters do better, but I make better pastry than they do. I've been freezing green beans for years now, I don't like the commercially frozen bags and I HATE canned beans, so this was best for me, I do carrots too. 40 fish fingers lasts me a long time, I only have two at a time with a heap of vegetables. no ice-cream here now until next summer. You're going to have to eat some of your freezer goodies before you make more.

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    2. Ingo made sooo many Königsberger Klopse, I´ll have to eat those ;-)

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    3. Iris Flavia; you will have to put the Konigsberger Klopse in a post so we can all find out what that is.

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  12. That bread looks totally nice, sad that it was not, and better luck on your nexttry. My first blog post was actually on baking a bread ;) I love your colours, and think to myself how happy I am not to be heading towards autumn quite now. I miss sun, summer and hot!

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    Replies
    1. Charlotte; The first try was edible, but didn't look very nice, the second try looked wonderful but was awful. One day I will get it right.

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  13. That's an excellent way to save produce, i appreciate that you demonstrated it so clearly.

    One of my clients does something similar with scraps that would smell badly, she puts them in a previously used plastic zip bag in the refrigerator and throws it out only the night before collection.

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    Replies
    1. messymimi; I do the plastic zip bags too if my ice cream tub is already too full.

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  14. Your bread had me fooled! It looks so delicious. Lola looks sweet when she'd sleeping.

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    1. Val; looks are so terribly deceiving aren't they?

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  15. That bread looks lovely...but bread takes practice!! Even when you can do it...leave it for a while and it's like learning from scratch again!
    Hi, by the way , via Steve's blog!

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    Replies
    1. gz; welcome to drifting. I've never really got the hang of bread making, but I'll keep trying.

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  17. How disappointing the bread didn't turn out. I'll eat just about any texture of homemade bread but the sour taste I can't handle either. Better luck next time. Do you have a light in your oven? I've read that if you put your dough in the oven with the light turned on, it will be warm enough to keep the yeast going. (Cover with plastic wrap right on the dough, then a tea towel over the top. Just remember not to turn the oven on for something else when the dough is in there.

    You are so organized about your cooking. I know how I SHOULD do things but I just don't do it. I hope when some of my energy returns I can get into better habits like yours.

    Lola looks so much like my Lucy. It always startles me when you post her picture.

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  18. That bread sure looks tasty. Pity it was not.

    God bless.

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